


The Plea

by Seasnake



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Aborted Undertale Genocide Run, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Assisted Suicide, Evil Chara (Undertale), Friendship, Gen, Possession, Post-Undertale Genocide Route, Protective Siblings, Sharing a Body, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22637938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasnake/pseuds/Seasnake
Summary: In the Judgement Hall of a genocide run, Frisk asks Sans for an unexpected favor. 'Kill me at the beginning before I can hurt anyone else.' Too bad it's not that easy. The royal siblings aren't going to surrender their control of the timeline without a fight.Inspired by The ThoughtNo character bashing; Chara is evil in this because Chara doesn't have a soul, same as Flowey.
Relationships: Chara & Flowey (Undertale), Frisk & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	1. No Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> The Thought by https://tratserenoyreve.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> In this story, Frisk has never finished a pacifist run.

Sans’ memories of past timelines weren’t perfect, he probably would have gone insane by now if they were. That hardly mattered at the moment, though, he didn’t need to know exactly how far the human got on each attempt, or which attack killed them. He just needed to keep going. Sooner or later they would give up. And if not…well…he could do this forever.

Sans watched the human appear in the corridor. Attempt number somewhere in the triple digits. He had the feeling they had gotten close to wearing him down once or twice but the last few tries were sloppy, hopefully they were getting tired.

The kid walked forward a few steps. Without warning, they stopped and collapsed to their knees. They started crying.

“Sans you did it.” They looked up at him with a teary smile. “Chara’s exhausted. They’re asleep. They let me take over.” Was this a joke? They weren’t within combat range, definitely out of knife stabbing range.

“Uh…kid?” Sans stayed where he was and watched them bawl on the tile floor.

“I don’t have a lot of time. I need you to kill me.” Sans was about to remind them that’s what he had been doing. “Back at the beginning before anyone dies. I’m going to reset. Chara will still be weaker. If you kill me then maybe… I can…” They pulled up their stats. “19? Okay, I’ll tell Chara I reset so we can get to 20.” They muttered to themselves. They looked up from their stats to smile sadly at Sans. “Sans I know you hate making promises but…” 

“I’m not promising you anything.”

They almost looked a betrayed by that answer as if they had the right. “Just please, remember. I’m so sorry.”

“What the heck are you…” They picked up their knife. But they didn’t charge Sans. Instead they stabbed themselves in the chest. The world went dark before Sans had time to figure what just happened.

LOAD

Sans woke up in his bed. If he didn’t get up right now Papyrus would shout.

“Sans! Wake up you Lazybones!” Yep, there it was.

“I’m up, I’m up.” He rolled out of bed. Dejavu, and a massive headache. Oh boy, another loop. There was something he’d been confused by right before the reset. What was it? He remembered being angry, that almost too clear in his memory. The empty Underground, Papyrus’ dust. There was something else… Sans collected his things on autopilot. He hadn’t had a chance to write any of it down, he knew that. Something to do with Gaster? No, that wasn’t right.

“GOOD MORNING BROTHER, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE PREPARED BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI.”

“thanks bro.” He had a few hours to figure it out. Sans allowed himself to enjoy Papyrus’ company. He forced down breakfast and tried not to think about seeing Papyrus die over and over.

Right on time, Papyrus bustled them out of the house, escorted Sans to his station, nagged him about staying awake, and then left. Sans settled in to think. It was a toss up on how long the human would take in the Ruins.

Sans closed his eyes and thought back. Going all out, fighting the little murder in the Judgement Hall. Fighting, death, determination, confusion. ‘I know you hate making promises…kill me…Chara’ Sans straightened abruptly, he was too anxious to wait here. He took a shortcut to the Ruins Door and leaned against a tree out of sight.

He didn’t wait long before the ancient door creaked open. A human shambled out into the snow. Sans sighed when he saw the human was covered in dust. More than that, something wasn’t right. The kid looked like they were struggling with themselves. They took a step forward, paused, took two steps. With Herculean effort, Frisk dropped the toy knife. They threw their arms wide, begging to be hit. “Sans! Please!”

Promise to the lady forgotten in the face of the human’s heartbroken plea, Sans obeyed. Initiating an encounter and landing a fatal attack before the human could react, required fudging the rules of combat a little, which he was thankfully strong enough to do. Multiple bones pierced the child’s chest ending the fight before it even began. Sans walked closer as the human’s HP drained to zero. He could have sworn their face flickered in those few seconds. Glitching back and forth between relieved smile and furious grimace until their red soul broke away from their body. Sans waited for a reset but the heart just hung in the air.

“What the…?” There was something nearly impossible to see cleaning to the soul. Almost like a shadow or filmy black liquid coated the red heart. He didn’t get words from the kid, just the feeling of pain and fear. The dark substance pulled on the soul, forcing it to crack.

The Human’s Soul Cries for Help.

 ~~But nobody~~ Sans Attempts to Help.

Sans reached out and held the soul in both hands. Souls weren’t exactly solid, trying to pull a goopy veil off one with physical hands probably wouldn’t work. He gave it a try anyway, while simultaneously offering the soul some of his magic.

“What the heck is this thing?” The black wispy substance burned like acid on his bones. The soul cracked further. He couldn’t allow another reset! Desperately he poured more of his magic into the soul trying to keep it in one piece.

A bright red light whited out his vision for a second. He couldn’t sense the human soul in his hands but felt a slight tingling all over his body.

 **“Sans?”** He heard the human’s voice. Their corpse was still limply slumped on his attack.

“Kid? How are you…” He realized what this weird feeling meant. “Oh boy, I didn’t mean to do this.” He looked down at his empty hands and experimentally flexed his fingers. It was weird, all his senses felt a bit sharper and more in focus.

 **“I…I can’t feel Chara anymore.”** They sounded relieved but then a thought occurred to them. **“We need to get to Box Road!”** Sans’ body suddenly lurched down the path.

“What? Kid!” He wasn’t in control of where his legs were taking them.

 **“Box Road!”** Frisk compelled him along snowy paths. A yellow star hovered over the ground, Sans had never noticed that before. Frisk tugged his hand until he touched it.

SAVE

Frisk sighed with relief.

“So that’s how that works.”

**“Yeah, I can only do it in certain places.”**

“Okay, Kid. I did what you asked. Now what?”

**“Um, Sans…could you please call me Frisk? You called Chara ‘kid’ too.”**

“Chara was that thing on your soul?” he asked just to be sure they were talking about the same thing. Frisk nonverbally shared a feeling of agreement. “Ok, Frisk, what’s your plan?”

Firsk admitted they didn’t know. **“I just didn’t want to hurt anyone.”**

Sans thought for a moment then decided to check something. He pulled on his magic to see his options. RESET appeared. “Welp, if you or we…have it than nobody else can reset the timeline. That’s something.” They both stood in silence for a moment. “Look Frisk, I didn’t meant to actually absorb you.”

“ **I’m glad you did. I can’t hurt anyone like this.”** The melancholy from their mind made the joined hearts sink in his ribcage.

“Heh, I was just about to suggest finding a way to undo it. Whatever that thing on your soul was, its gone now.”

**“…”**

“Frisk?”

**“This isn’t the first time I thought I beat Chara. I’ve fought them off before, the first time they tried to make me kill Papyrus and MK, I made them go quiet. But they always managed to force a reset. … I’m scared.”**

Sans didn’t know what to say to that, thankfully he was saved from having to answer by the bro.

“SANS THERE YOU ARE!” Papyrus stomped over but paused. “SANS, YOU…”

“Uh…Pap?”

“SANS WHAT HAPPENED?”

“What are you talking about, bro?” Sans was genuinely confused but Papyrus became irritated.

“WHY DO YOU ALWAYS LIE TO ME? I CAN PLAINLY SEE SOMETHING HAPPENED!”

“I really don’t know what you mean.”

“YOUR SKULL!”

“My what?” he raised a hand to his forehead only to feel something new. He walked to a patch of ice that was smooth enough to see his reflection. He had horns now. His skull looked the same as always except for two horns. He activated his magic and saw both eyes glow blue, not just his left one. Papyrus realized Sans wasn’t faking this confusion. He waited for him to finish looking at himself. “heh, cool.”

“NOW WILL YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU DID?”

“well its kinda complicated but basically I absorbed a human soul.”

“YOU….WHAT? A HUMAN? YOU FOUND A HUMAN?”

“More like they found me.”

 **“How much does Papyrus know about the resets?”** Frisk asked. That was a complicated question that Sans didn’t want to answer. **“Can you let me talk to him? You can make things with your magic, right? Can you make me lights or something?”**

“SANS ARE YOU LISTENING?!”

“What? Oh sorry, Paps, the human is talking my nonexistent ear off.”

“SANS YOU TOOK SOMEONE’S SOUL AND ARE TREATING THIS LIKE A JOKE?!”

“Wait!” Frisk willed themselves to scream and actually managed to make a sound. “Please don’t be angry at Sans! He only did it to help me!” Frisk looked mostly like they did in life, only red and glowing.

“Nyeh? Human, you’re alive? Or…” He eyed the apparition.

Frisk looked down at themselves. “I’m red. I thought I would be blue like your magic.”

“Nah, it’s my trick making the lightbulb, your soul powering it.”

“Cool.” Frisk smiled at Sans briefly before returning to the important matter. “I asked Sans to kill me.”

“What? Human, what are you saying?”

“I…It’s difficult to explain but when I landed in the ruins, there was this thing. I’m still not sure exactly Chara is but… They tried to take me over.” Frisk hugged themselves and their light flickered as their soul shuddered in pain. “They said that they had lost their soul. And now they were going to take mine. It’s like they were made out of pure hate. It felt like they were controlling my mind, I couldn’t tell what were my thoughts and what were theirs. They made do terrible things and I couldn’t stop them.”

“Small human…”

“That’s why,” Frisk started speaking again. “When I saw Sans in the woods, I knew he had to kill me. If a monster absorbed my soul than surely Chara couldn’t take it.”

“IS THAT TRUE, SANS?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I didn’t believe them at first but… c’mon just look at them. How could I say no to that?”

“I SEE…” Papyrus took a moment to ponder this. “BUT BROTHER, WHY DID YOU ABSORB THE SOUL? WHY NOT TELL SOMEONE?”

“Actually that was an accident. The kid here was breaking apart before my eyes. I was just trying to hold them together.”

Frisk nodded. “Chara was screaming at me to…” reset “I only stopped hearing their voice after Sans absorbed me.”

“THIS SOUNDS LIKE A …VERY UNFORTUNATE SITUATION. BUT IT ALSO SOUNDS LIKE YOU BOTH TRIED YOUR BEST.”

“Please don’t say that,” Frisk spoke up. “I should never have listened to Chara. I was stupid. I didn’t think there would be consequences. I let them get stronger and then…”

“You made a mistake,” Sans interrupted. “You’re trying to fix it aren’t you?”

“YES. YOU PUT YOUR TRUST AND SOMEONE AND THEY BETRAYED YOU.” Papyrus gained confidence as he spoke. “BELIEVING IN OTHERS IS A GOOD THING, HUMAN.”

“Yeah, so don’t be so down on yourself. You’re a featherweight like this. Ghosts can fly, you know.”

“SANS,” Papyrus grumbled but Frisk giggled.

“We share weight now, and you have no meat on your bones.”

“OH GOD, SANS YOU’RE A BAD INFLUENCE. WAIT BROTHER! HOW ARE YOU GOING OT EXPLAIN THIS TO UNDYNE, OR ANYONE?”

“Didn’t think of that.”

“And…AND!” Papyrus thought of something worrisome. “WHAT IF THIS CHARA PERSON IS STILL ON THE LOOSE? SANS, DID YOU KILL THEM?”

“Eh, hard to say.”

“They are a memory or an echo of some sort,” Frisk pondered. “I think they can only possess human souls so until someone falls down like I did, they’re probably asleep again.”

“Still, we should probably inform Undyne. Anything that can effect a soul like that…well, let’s not worry about that right now. If you say it’s trapped than that’s where it is.” He paused for a moment before asking. “Now is there anything else I should know?”

Frisk looked Sans for an answer. Frisk hadn’t told a single fib. If Sans wanted to mention the time loop or not, that was up to him.

“Nah, Bro. You’re all caught up. I just wasn’t sure how to broach the whole…murder thing.”

“Rescue mission!”

“Mercy killing.”

 **“Justified execution,”** Frisk thought but didn’t say.

“RIGHT NOW, I’M MORE CONCERNED FOR YOUR APPEARANCE THAN ANYTHING. ARE YOU…STUCK LIKE THAT?”

“Beats me, I didn’t even notice the new mug, remember.”

“Well, I suppose I can bring Undyne to our place when I give my report. She’ll know what to do. Brother, can you get home like that without anyone seeing you?”

“No problem, I’ll take a shortcut.”

“GOOD. THAT’S GOOD.” Awkward moment of silence. “I SUPPOSE I SHOULD GET BACK TO MY POST. TWO HUMANS COULD ALWAYS COME BY IN THE SAME DAY.”

“You mean twomans?”

“SANS.”

“I’m going to take a sick day. Sudden horn growth should count, don’t you think.”

“I SUPPOSE.”

“Fangtastic, I’ll see you back home.”

“SANS!” Sans ignored his brother’s pained wailing and sidestepped to their living room

 **“Whoa! You just teleported!”** The mirage of Frisk disappeared when Sans stopped paying attention to maintaining it but he could still hear the voice in his head. “ **You can teleport? I knew you cheated somehow!”**

“I’m not a dirty cheater, Frisk. It’s just a shortcut.”

 **“Can I actually see inside your room this time?”** Frisk asked.

“Eh, it’s not much to see.” Sans might as well humor them and grab a different pair of shoes and socks as his were wet from the snow. He entered his room and could feel the human’s curiosity. “I’d apologize for the mess except 1) I wasn’t expecting you 2) I don’t much care for your opinion.”

**“Refugee quarters, I guess I can’t complain. Wait! Are you going to change clothes? How do I close my eyes like this?”**

“Chill out, Frisk. It’s just bones. You had a skeleton inside you, didn’t you?”

**“I’m a soul. I lived inside the skeleton inside my skin.”**

“Heh, this isn’t too different for you then.”

**“Just a bit drafty.”**

“I’ll see about getting you better accommodations soon.” Sans kicked off his work shoes and changed to house slippers. “Assuming nothing resets the timeline. Maybe Alphys can make you a body of some sort.”

**“Like she did for Metatron? He used to be a ghost, right?”**

“Huh. How do you know about that? Most people think she created an artificial soul.”

**“I may have broken into his house and read his diaries.”**

“Kid, there is a difference between being a fan and being a stalker.”

**“I didn’t know it was his house! I just bought a lost key off the garbage sellers.”**

“I’m not sure if that’s better. Using your powers for invasion of privacy.”

**“….”**

“Look, Frisk, I would be a hypocrite to blame you for thinking the timeloop meant nothing mattered.”

**“No. I should have known Chara was bad. They asked me to kill monsters in the ruins. They said I could help everyone if I just raised my LV a little. I didn’t know any of the Froggits or other monsters but they were still people. I shouldn’t have…”**

“…” They were right, they shouldn’t have so Sans didn’t offer any comfort.

**“But my LV always returned to zero with the reset! They would all return to life! I didn’t think Chara would remember, that they would be stronger.”**

“Honestly, I don’t get why your level of violence resets. You still remember what you did, so it should still be easier to hurt others.” Sans left his room and went to the couch.

**“Well, mine reset. Maybe Chara’s didn’t. They took it.”**

“Makes as much sense as anything else. One thing I know, Kid. Time travel is 90% guess work.”

**“Sans…thanks for not hating me.”**

“I’ve done bad things in the pasts too, Frisk. No need to talk about it.”

Frisk kept talking anyway. **“Toriel is dead. I didn’t try to stop Chara this time. If I fought them then, I thought I might be too tired to resist when I needed you to kill me.”**

Bad news but Sans expected it. He sighed and turned on the TV just to try and get the kid to think about something else. “You needed to stop the loop, Frisk. I think the lady would understand if she knew.”


	2. Best Friends Reunite

Flowey rose from the frozen ground, he hated Snowdin. He shook the cold out of his petals then smirked at the limp human. “Golly, you’re in a bit of pickle aren’t cha? Not to worry, Your old friend’s got your back.” He extended thorny vines to lift the dead human free. With magic and cellulose he patched the gaping hole in the child’s chest.

Flowey felt the human stir and set them on the ground. The human opened their blood red eyes and quickly stood. They raised their toy knife to the flower.

“Whoa there…” Flowey smugly pointed a leaf at them. “That’s my vine holding you together, Buddy. If I die, you’re out of luck.”

Frisk’s body looked from its mended wound to Flowey and then started laughing uproariously “How about that? Did Little Azzy finally grow a brain?”

“I’m not stupid Chara,” the talking flower growled.

“Painfully naïve.” Chara waved the toy knife threateningly.

“NOT ANYMORE! Enjoy your power nap, Buddy? Some of us have been busy.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Flowey lowed his voice to admit, “I’ve had hundreds of years to regret that. I admit, I messed up big time and we’ve both had to pay for it. So I guess what I’m trying to say is…I’m sorry Chara.”

The child frowned at them thoughtfully. Flowey smiled up at them hopefully. They sighed. “Because it’s you, Brother. I’ll make a one time exception… I forgive you. But if you screw me again…”

“You won’t regret it!” Flowey hugged the human’s leg best his tiny body would allow. “You and me against the world, Pal.”

“Like it should have been.” Chara patted his head. “Now, take me someplace nobody will notice a few monsters getting dusted.”


	3. First Reset

Sans dozed off. Frisk might have as well, or they just sulked quietly and let Sans sleep. He startled awake to the door slamming open.

“BROTHER I HAVE RETURNED! AND I BROUGHT UNDYNE!”

“yay.”

“Sans what is going….Whoa!” Undyne paused when she got a good look at him. “Sans? What happened to you?”

A few minutes later…

“Why didn’t you call me! It’s my job to fight the humans! You’re just supposed to detain them!”

 **“Let me talk to her.”** Frisk said inside Sans’ head.

_“C’mon, kid you want to be yelled at?” Sans answered back silently._

**“I killed her I deserve to be yelled at. Just let me out.”**

_“Fine, fine.”_ “The human wants to answer this one.” Sans pointed to where he created the projection of Frisk.

“I needed Sans to fight me right away. Any longer and Chara would have gotten stronger.”

“This Chara person again?” Undyne scratched her neck in frustration. “Sans, you didn’t see any sign of this…thing?”

“Hmmm…well, there was something feeding off their soul. I didn’t get a good look at it,” He answered truthfully. Undyne wasn’t impressed. Undyne frowned at Frisk but decided not to argue with a dead human.

“Right, well. You took out the human to save people and absorbed the soul so it wouldn’t shatter. I guess everything is fine. You should probably come with me to explain to Asgore, though.”

“goodie.”

They traveled through the underground. Alphys texted them a few times, asking what was going on and mentioning that several of her cameras were offline for unknown reasons. It didn’t take too long to reach the throne room.

“Asgore.”

“Oh, Undyne, must a moment.” He finished watering some flowers and turned around. “How are…” He took a surprised step back when he saw Sans. “Is that…”

“sup.” Sans waved.

“HELLO KING ASGORE, AS YOU CAN SEE MY BROTHER SANS, WELL, HE FOUND A HUMAN.”

“Yeah….” Undyne wasn’t sure how to explain this.

“Yes, I see that…would you like to discuss this over a cup of tea?” Asgore fell back on his favorite delaying tactic.

“That’s…probably a good idea. This is going to take a while to explain.” Undyne answered.

Asgore led them into his grey house, decorated only with flowers. He sat them around the table and served tea. Sans let Papyrus and Undyne retell the story to the king. Frisk didn’t offer any insights. “ _You’re awfully quiet Frisk.”_ Sans sent a thought from his soul to Frisk’s.

**“I never got a chance to know Asgore very well. He just killed me…a lot.”**

The lights flickered. Asgore jumped to his feet. “The souls!” Asgore ran out of the room and the three monsters quickly followed. Papyrus didn’t have to drag Sans, Frisk made their shared body sprint. Asgore arrived at the barrier first. He was ready to attack but…

“Father!” A shout made Asgore lower his defenses.

“Chara is that…” A knife slashed down, turning the king to dust.

“Asgore!” Undyne readied for battle but the attackers didn’t engage. Two figures loomed in front of them.

“Thanks for distracting that old fool for us. We never would have gotten past him on our own.” Flowey said

“Without a soul I can’t hit as hard as I used to. But now I have three.” A second figure stood next to the flower. They looked human, looked like Frisk. But their shirt was green, their eyes red, and the aura they gave off was anything but friendly. They grinned maliciously at the red soul. “Greetings, Frisk. It’s me, Chara. That was a mean trick you pulled, selling me out. And to the skeleton who killed us a hundred times, too.”

“Yeah, you gave your soul to Smily Trashbag instead of us? That’s cold Firsk.” Flowey stuck his tongue out jokingly. “But don’t worry we’ll fix that.”

“When we carve your soul out.”

“And then we’ll have seven souls and we can destroy this timeline for good.” The siblings laughed and the six human souls spun around them.

Frisk and Sans blacked out for a moment. When they woke it was to nothingness.

“Papyrus?! Undyne!?” Sans called into the void.

“I don’t think they’re here, it’s just…”

Ominous red light revealed a giant creature. It almost hurt to look at it. It was a mess of pulsating, distorted limbs made of mix-matched parts in too bright colors and in too sharp focus. Two faces smashed together laughed as one.

Without further preamble, vines launched at the white and red heart. Sans took the lead and moved their combined soul to dodge. They were trapped between two spiked arms and didn’t have much room to maneuver. After fighting many monsters Frisk felt confident in their dodging skills, Sans was even better though, they let him take charge. A small slip to the side found a gap in a wave of stars. Running from one side to the other got them away from circles of seeds.

“Didn’t expect you to join us for this fight, Trash. Must have a death grip on that human’s soul.”

“Aw, unless little Frisk was too afraid to fight us alone.”

A whirring sound and suddenly they were surrounded with circling knives. Easy to avoid thankfully. Sans walked them in lazy circles until Frisk noticed something. Frisk took control of their soul to run and grasp a sliver of their determination fueled magic. ACT. Fisk called for help and the human soul answered. It wasn’t enough though, Flowey and Chara reappeared.

“We’ve destroyed everything, now it’s only your determination holding us back.”

“Absorb their soul, Brother, and then we can finally be the god we always planned.”

They had a couple different attacks this round. Flame throwers, swords, and guns, “finger guns? That’s just tacky.”

Another of the human souls activated. Again, Frisk called for help and was heard. In a moment they were back fighting the monster.

“Your determination will wear out eventually. Even if it takes a thousand years. What’s that to us?”

“And then, we will have seven souls.”

**“No, we can win this.”** Frisk thought to their partner. “ **Those souls are fighting them now.”**

_“Two down four to go.”_

The option to fight back appeared. Frisk took a hit from one of Flowey’s attacks to reach the FIGHT. Sans mentally braced for the injury but actually, it didn’t hurt very much. Their shared soul was pretty durable, especially now that the other humans were sending healing magic.

“Oh no, you hurt us.”

“Whatever shall we do?” The siblings laughed. “Maybe…this!” An unavoidable giant knife sliced their red and white soul in half. Frisk and Sans barely had a moment to feel pain before their save file loaded. The combined siblings blew them apart again and again.

“You can’t defeat us. We are the god of this existence.”

“We’ll just keep reloading every time you die. We can keep killing you until the end of time.”

“Wait…” Their smugness evaporated. “Where did our powers go?”

The six human souls broke free from the distorted body. “The souls?”

Everything went black and empty again. Frisk spotted the withered body of Flowey. They wanted to talk to him but Sans already willed a reset. The king, everyone in the ruins, and who knew who else were dead. Pap and Undyne were likely dead as well, and the six souls were gone. Chara and Flowey were defeated, the kid could go back to their body for now. The familiar feeling of the world freezing and rolling backwards made them sleepy.


	4. Chapter 4

Frisk opened their eyes, expecting to be back in the Ruins. Instead they were looking up at a plaster ceiling.

Sans recognized his ceiling but felt odd. More awake and energized than usual.

**“What? Sans?”**

_“Frisk?”_ Sans looked down at himself. Frisk’s red soul was still combined with his inside his ribcage.

**“Where are we?”**

_“My room. We reset.”_

**“But if I’m here does that mean Chara’s in my body?”**

_“only one way to find out.”_

Sans stood and collected his jacket and shoes **. “Can we teleport there?”**

“ _I can only shortcut to places I know the coordinates for.”_ He almost left his room before remembering to pull his hood over his horns.

“GOOD MORNING, BROTHER. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE PREPARED BREAKFAST SPAGHETI.”

“eh, sorry bro, I got to do something quick.”

Papyrus leaned out of the kitchen to look at him suspiciously. “SANS, YOU’RE HIDING SOMETHING AREN’T YOU?”

“course not, bro.” Sans immediately answered in the negative because he was a liar and that's what he did. Frisk didn’t say anything but Sans could feel their disapproval. “I’ll be bacon a second, don’t egg-sert yourself.”

“SANS!”

Sans excused himself from the house and took a shortcut to the forest. They stood in front of the Ruins door.

_“What’s it like behind the door? A straight corridor?”_

**“Yes.”**

_“cool, than I can make an educated guess.”_ They disappeared from Snowdin and reappeared in the Ruins.

**“Are you the only monster who can do that?”**

_“I’m just too lazy to walk everywhere.”_

**“That doesn’t really answer my question.”**

Sans walked through the long corridor. Nobody else was around.

 **“Come on, you’ll have to tell me more about yourself eventually. This is Toriel’s house. I know where to go.”** Frisk took control of their body when they reached the stairs. This didn’t stop them from asking questions. Frisk rarely spoke but apparently thought quite a lot, Sans got to hear it all now. **“I get that Toriel and Asgore are the only boss monsters but are you and Papyrus the only skeletons? I didn’t see any others. Why are you named after fonts? How are you named after fonts? Were fonts even invented when monsters were sealed underground?”**

The frogits and other monsters looked at Sans curiously but didn’t otherwise react.

 _“That’s a skeleton of questions, Frisk.”_ Which he had no intention of answering. He could feel the kid’s pout.

**“What about ghosts? If they aren’t solid how was I-I-mean-Chara, able to kill Mettaton?”**

The puzzles were deactivated, thankfully, so traversing the Ruins was easy going. Footsteps were muffled by the dirty floor. They didn’t hear anyone coming until they rounded a corner. Chara, in Frisks’ body with malicious red eyes stood in the middle of the room.

Sans snatched control back from Frisk and raised his hand.

**“Sans wait!”**

_“I’m done waiting. That thing isn’t going to hurt anyone else.”_ He began a familiar battle for the hundredth (and change) time.

“Greetings Comedian,” Chara smirked like a devil. “You got here quickly. But aren’t your forgetting something?”

A third person joined their encounter and launched fireballs at Sans. The magic was meant to get him away from Chara rather than do damage.

“Oh, I admit I forgot about that.” Sans glanced guiltily at an angry Toriel.

“Who are you!? How did you get in here?”

“would you believe the door was open?”

“Wait. That voice, are you…”

 **“Oh no, San’s she’s your friend.”** Frisk tugged on their magic.

“Frisk!” Sans tried to stop them but the child didn’t listen. They woke up in Sans’ bedroom. _“You didn’t have to do that.”_

**“Reset? Why? What’s wrong.”**

Sans sighed and tried to think of how to explain this. “ _resetting like that can have consequences. Space-time isn’t something to play with.”_ Frisk didn’t say anything but Sans could feel their curiosity. “ _just take my word for it, ok? No time travel unless we have to_.” He stood and put on some shoes. “ _Welp, at least this time I know how to get there_.”

Frisk payed attention as Sans used a shortcut to appear in where they last were in Ruins. A brisk stroll and a shortcut across a couple long rooms led them to where Frisk fell. Frisk’s body lay on the flower bed. For a second nothing moved. Then Chara sat up. Sans raised his left hand the second Chara moved.

**“Sans you don’t have to…”**

_“Sorry, Frisk I’m overruling you on this one.”_ Chara spotted them and their red eyes widened. Sans summoned a blaster which set the human alight before they could even stand from the flower bed. He waited to make sure the corpse wasn’t going to stand back up. _“Now the weed.”_

**“Do we have to?”**

_“They’re undead and soulless. At this point putting them out of their misery is probably the nicest thing to do.”_ Sans walked away from the flower patch toward the ruins.

 **“Flowey is usually waiting for me here.”** The cave was eerily silent. **“Toriel’s on her way.”**

Sans teleported to the front door of his house. Things were too quiet. A snow mound shifted as Flowey appeared.

“Hey Traitor! Trashbag!” Flowey sprouted a safe distance away to shout. With a nasty smirk he pulled a couple roots out of the snow to throw a red scarf at them. “You killed my sibling so I killed yours. Now you have to reset.”

Sans glared at Flowey. The flower smirked and tunneled back under the ground before Sans could have the satisfaction of killing him. Frisk pulled up their options menu. “ **This time let’s try to keep anyone from dying.”**

The world reset and they were back in Sans’ bedroom.

**“Sans?”**

“yeah?” Sans wasn’t feeling particularly motivated at the moment.

**“I have an idea. Can I try teleporting?”**

_“sure, why not?”_ In their shared head-space he nudged the feeling of his magic towards Frisk. _“Just keep your start and end coordinates straight or we’ll end up in a wall.”_

**“...I’m trying to figure out how that’s a pun.”**

_“It’s not.”_

Sans didn’t move from his bed so they teleported lying down and landed on their back on a gray floor. Frisk made their shared body stand and pace a little bit until they found a switch on the floor. Sans raised an eyesocket as the six human souls appeared and he realized what Frisk wanted him to do.

_“Welp, that’s a plan alright.”_

**“Maybe this way we can save everyone.”**


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Italics: Sans  
> Bold: Frisk  
> ~orange  
> -dark blue  
> *light blue  
> [Purple]  
> (green)  
> 

Asgore must have an alarm on the souls because he charged into the barrier room. Frisk was still in control of their shared body so they flinched. Sans quickly retook the reigns. “hey, sorry to drop by unannounced.”

“Sans?” Asgore paused. “What happened to you?” He squinted and realized the difference. “You didn’t…”

“long story.” Asgore didn’t say anything. “you can probably guess the short version.”

“Surely it was an accident.”

“yeah. welp, I guess I got to break the barrier now, huh?”

“Sans, wait. Let us talk about this.”

“nothing to talk about.” He turned the souls blue and pulled them out of the jars towards him.

“You don’t have to do this!”

“Actually, I really do.” Absorbing Frisk had been an accident but doing so again wasn’t hard. His body and magic wrapped around the souls and swelled.

 _“Since we’re here, the barrier?”_ he checked with Frisk

**“Sure, then we make sure Papyrus is safe.”**

Sans turned to the barrier and pushed against it. Or, maybe he just fell into it, he was feeling a bit lightheaded at the moment. Either way, it creaked under their combined weight before shattering like glass.

Sans stumbled forward a couple steps before regaining his balance. Yikes, he hadn’t been clumsy like this since he was a baby bones. He walked a bit further into the sunlight. So this is what outside looked like, huh?

Sans and Frisk took a second to assess their new body. They weren’t patchwork pieces like Flowey and Chara had been. Sans was still clearly a skeletal monster. Just very tall and equipped with colorful extra limbs. He had six wings, each one housing a human soul. Experimentally he flapped these wings. He could move them, they just felt a little heavier and more numb than his arms and legs, and tail. As a skeleton he’d always had a tail bone but this was a proper tail with a sharp end.

 **“I have my own eyes now.”** Frisk observed. They didn’t share Sans’ head anymore. They had their own Gaster Blaster style skull floating, yet still attached, above Sans. Frisk spun their new face around and tried talking but could only make a few clicking and growling noises. “ **Can we teleport like this?** ”

“ _well, no place where ceiling height would be a concern._ ”

**“Maybe we should just call Papyrus.”**

_“What are you thinking? If Flowey wants Papyrus dead we aren’t going to be able to guard him constantly.”_

**“Don’t be so negative, Sans. We can at least save when we know he’s safe so we don’t have to reset constantly, you said that was bad.”**

It wasn’t worth arguing with them. And hey, maybe Sans wasn’t the best judge of these things, endless resets by the flower had worn him down. His phone was still in their inventory so he took it out and called Papyrus.

Asgore was staring at Sans. Sans had no idea what to say to him.

“SANS WHERE ARE YOU!”

“hey bro, something came up.”

“SOMETHING CAME UP? SANS!” Papyrus ranted about doing a job right and responsibility.

 **“Woah, Sans, look at this,”** Frisk accessed their options menu while he was talking. They now had the choice to save.

“heh,” Sans pressed it. “I’ll talk to you later Pap. Right now I got to go. oh, and that talking flower friend of yours, don’t let your guard down around him, kay?”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FLOWEY? SANS!” Sans hung up.

“so, barriers broken, now what?” he addressed this to both Asgore and Frisk.

**“I dunno, I guess it depends on what Flowey and Chara are going to do.”**

~Who?

A new voice startled Frisk and Sans. Their shared body now had six new passengers.

_“what? are all of you awake?”_

(Yep)

-I just woke up.

*Where are we?

[At least we’re out of those jars.]

<What’s going on?>

 **“Everyone keep calm. I can explain.”** Frisk gathered the other humans to talk.

Sans’ attention returned to Asgore, who was lecturing him for being hasty.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the tunnel entrance. Undyne charged out of the Underground. “Asgore! What’s going on? Alphys said that… is this?” She looked at her bright surroundings in confusion. “This is outside?! You did it! You broke the barrier!”

“No, I was not the one…”

“Who the hell are you?” Undyne created a spear when she spotted Sans.

“hey, what do you call a fish with no eyes?”

“Sans?”

“sans? nope, a fsh.”

“Sans, what the hell did you do?”

“eh, accidentally absorbed a human soul then figured I’d finish the job.”

“You! You lazy bones! The one time you decide to do your job, you do this?!” Undyne displayed a mix of genuine annoyance and teasing. She looked like she wanted to tackle and noogie Sans but didn’t because he was now twice her size.

“Gill-ty”

“Asgore was supposed to be the one with those souls! Do you realize you’re going to have to be in every battle from now on. No more slacking off! Papyrus is going to freak!” She was irritated with Sans but more excited for the war she’d been preparing for her whole life.

“Undyne, you don’t understand. We can’t go to war with the humans,” Asgore said.

“With seven souls Sans has the power of god! We could,”

“No Undyne, we could not.” Asgore interrupted her with uncharacteristic rudeness. “We can’t win in against the humans. In the war, there were thousands of us monsters fighting thousands of humans, and still we lost. Now there are billions of humans and their weaponry has only improved. One monster, god or not, won’t make a difference.”

Undyne frowned as her entire world view came crashing down.

“so what are we going to do? You’ve had six souls for a while now, you must have come up with something.”

“I was…planning to turn myself in. If I took the responsibility for killing and ordering the deaths of the children on my own head, the humans would have no reason to declare war.”

“What! Are you serious? How could you even consider that?”

-Not to mention, Fish lady is the one who killed me.

[Same]

*I never made it to the king either.

“We must think very carefully about what to do next. For now, let’s keep all that’s happened between us. Sans…you stay here. I’ll send for Alphys.” Asgore left. Undyne stayed behind for a second. She looked at Sans but couldn’t think of anything to say. She just grumbled something and then hurried after Asgore.

“welp,” Sans found a convenient place to sit down. _“this is new at least.”_

 **“It’ll be okay, Sans.”** Frisk thought. None of their companions echoed the hopeful statement.

~Hey, does anyone know the date?~ the orange soul spoke up after a moment of silence.

-More than that, when did all of you fall?

Sans didn’t care and tuned out their chatter. He zoned out and didn't pay attention to how long he sat there.

“SANS!” A familiar shout caught this attention.

“oh, hey bro.”

“SANS IS…” Papyrus drew up short when he got a good look at Sans. “OH MY GOD. ARE THOSE HUMAN SOULS?” Sans guiltily stayed quiet. Why did Pap have to be here? Undyne and Asgore were one thing but upsetting Papyrus always hurt, no matter how many times it happened. “THIS IS WHY YOU LEFT WITHOUT WARNING? TO RESCUE MORE HUMANS?”

“more humans? what are you talking about, bro?”

“YOUR RED HUMAN FRIEND WITH THE…WELL, UM…I’M NOT SURE REALLY. I DON’T REMEMBER. I DO HOWEVER KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE DITCHED ME THIS MORNING.”

**“Maybe because we reset he remembers more?”**

_“well we are brothers, our magic is kinda similar.”_

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS? YOU DISAPPEAR FROM YOUR ROOM TO DO YOUR TIME SPACE SHINANAGINS! AND YOU DON’T EVEN TELL ME.”

“Sorry, Pap, I was in a hurry. Something really needed to get done. But hey, check it out, the sun’s nice isn’t it?”

“IS THAT WHAT IT’S CALLED? IT’S VERY BRIGHT.” Papyrus didn’t allow himself to be distracted long. “WAS THIS REALLY ALL NECESSARY?”

“yeah, sorry.”

“WELL, IF THIS IS WHAT YOU HAD TO DO THAN I TRUST YOU. JUST…YOU BETTER TELL ME THE WHOLE STORY LATER.”

“ok.”

 **“That went better than I expected.”** Frisk hit their save button again.

Frisk floated down to look at Papyrus. **“Hi Papyrus.”**

“OH, HELLO. ARE YOU A HUMAN THEN? YOU SEEM, ALMOST FAMILIAR.”

“ **Yay! Papyrus! I knew I could trust you!** ” Frisk happily clacked their jaw bone and headbutted Papyrus. “ **You’re the only one who believed in me.** ”

“NYEH HEH HEH, YOU’RE VERY OUTGOING.” Papyrus didn’t hesitate to pet the skull. “AREN’T THEY, SANS?”

“heh, they think you’re the coolest person they ever met, Pap.”

“WOWIE! REALLY?” Frisk nudged him fondly then returned to their resting position above Sans' head.

The brothers sat in awkward silence for a moment. Sans was about to crack a joke to break it. Alphys unknowingly saved Papyrus with her arrival.

“Oh my g-god, Sans?” Alphys shuffled out of the cave mouth.

“Hey Alph.”

“OH, DOCTOR ALPHYS, HELLO.”

“Uh…hi, Papyrus… so Sans you really…all six?”

“Seven.” He pointed to the blaster skull floating above his head. Frisk turned their head to look at Alphys with the best smile they could produce.

“A seventh human ffell? I did-didn’t…How did you?”

“I took a shortcut. You never had many cameras in the ruins.”

“oh…I…I won’t ask why…I mean…you probably had enough of that form Asgore and Undyne.” Sans didn’t have anything to say to that. “I guess…I just…I was asked to see if I could h-help you turn back to normal.”

“GOODIE, I DON’T THINK HE’LL FIT THOUGH OUR DOOR LIKE THIS.”

~Hold on, what about us?

*Would we have to go back in the dark?

<And what about Chara and Flowey? If there’s an evil flower wandering around I’d rather stay here.>

-I don’t want that jerk to have my soul.

(Yeah, don’t make decisions without us.)

Alphys didn’t know about this discussion, of course, and kept talking. “You could try turning back at will…I mean…tha-that would make sense as the first thing to try, right?”

Inside his headspace, Sans snuck closer to the purple soul and then gave them a hard shove.

**“Sans!” Frisk scolded him.**

“J _ust testing.”_ Out loud he said, “nope, can’t force them. The humans want to stay so I guess they’re staying.”

“They? They want to stay like that, with you?”

“WHY WOULDN’T THEY? BEING A MONSTER IS GREAT!”

“well, just to be sure, vote, who wants to leave?”

(No thanks)

*I didn’t like the jar, it was scary.

[I didn’t mind the jar but I’m not going to be fuel for someone evil.]

~Agreed.

-You said it.

<Not until we figure things out.>

**“I’m not going to make you deal with this alone, Sans.”**

“no takers. thanks anyway, Alph.”

“Oh um…I-I mean, we could always try…hooking you up to the DT extractor.”

“heh, guess I didn’t make myself clear. I’m not forcing them to leave. These kids are already dead, it would be rude to kick them out.” Papyrus looked like he was going to say something but then realized he didn’t know how all those humans had died. He thought about that, instead of speaking.

-Wow, you were right Frisk, he is nice.

[He just doesn’t want us absorbed by Flowey]

_“kiddos keep it down I’m trying to talk to Alph, here.”_

“Oh…well…I guess I understand. B-but it’s your body, Sans.”

“Eh, no biggie. now I can nap standing up.”

“SANS! THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO,”

<Hey! Behind you!> The yellow soul shouted, and the wing he controlled waved in alarm.

Sans was sitting down and unfamiliar with his body, he didn’t try to dodge as a flurry of fireballs appeared. The wings shrunk back but Sans held out an arm to make sure Alphys and Papyrus weren’t hit. The attacks bounced off, doing zero damage.

“HELLO! NEW PERSON!” Bless Papyrus, he gave a friendly wave to the furious boss monster.

“Tell me it isn’t true!”

The souls all spoke at once upon seeing her. (Toriel?) <Toriel?> ~Toriel?

*Mom!

[Wow, she’s angry]

-How did she get here?

“ **If she’s here than where’s Chara**?”

“Who are you?! Tell me you aren’t…” Toriel was crying angry tears.

She was addressing Sans but he didn’t answer so Papyrus did. “I’M THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS, AND OUR FRIEND DOCTOR APLHYS.”

This answer made Toriel angrier. “How dare you!” She launched another attack. This time the attacks did one damage each, which barely made a dent in their 7000 HP. “Was all of it a lie?! I thought you were my friend!”

[Oh I get it. Chara must be playing dead in Frisk’s body to make her think Sans and killed them.]

-Well he kinda did.

<Sounds like something Flowey would do>

(Guys, quiet. Don’t you feel how upset they are?) The green soul shushed the others as Sans and Frisk listened to Toriel. Sans soul hunkered down with guilt and depression to wait out the shouting. Frisk became increasingly agitated. 

“You promised to protect them! You used me! You liar! You murder!”

Something in Frisk snapped. They turned their skull **“Don’t say that about Sans!”** Their mental scream translated to a roar and a blast of magic. The monsters, Sans included, all instinctively ducked at the sound and sudden attack. A laser fired from Frisk’s mouth, striking the cliffside to Toriel’s left. If Toriel looked apologetic then, Frisk probably would have stopped, but she didn’t, she glared at Sans, feeling fully justified in her hatred. “ **You’re a terrible Mom!”**

“Frisk!?” Sans looked up with concern at Frisk’s growling skull.

“ **You never believed me! You never helped me!”** Frisk fired another random laser blast in Toriel’s general direction. This one struck the ground near her feet and made her fall over.

“Kid! You’re using my magic!”

“ **Your children killed themselves!** ” Frisk didn’t seem to realize what they were doing, or hear Sans. As another blast started to build in their mouth, Sans grabbed them. He wrapped both arms around their muzzle, forcing it closed.

“Frisk! Calm down, you’re going to kill someone!” The red eyes finally looked at him. “Take a breath, kiddo. Everything’s fine.” Frisk trusted his advice and the magic receded back to a passive state. “There ya go.” He couldn’t help but let out a relieved chuckle as he released Frisk.

Everyone stared, including Asgore and Undyne who had arrived. Papyrus, of course, recovered first. “BROTHER, I DON’T UNDERSTAND. WHY DID YOU…”

“that wasn’t me. That was one of the humans,” Sans explained to their audience. Frisk chose to ignore everyone else except Pap. They went over and headbutted him again, seeking comfort.

"SANS IS RIGHT, HUMAN, YOU MUST BE MORE CAREFUL WITH MAGIC."

“How can you all be so calm? Do none of you feel remorse?” Toriel was calmer now but still disgusted with those around her. “All of you, you’ve gotten what you wanted. The barrier is broken. It only cost the murder of seven innocent children.”

“MISS ASGORE’S CLONE, THERE MUST BE SOME MISUNDERSTANDING. MY BROTHER WOULD NEVER,”

“Pap, just leave it be for now, okay?” Undyne interrupted.

“Ahem, we still must decide what to do. Perhaps we should all sit down to talk.” said Asgore.

The monsters reluctantly agreed with the king. Sans was going to follow them back inside the mountain but Asgore stopped him. “Perhaps you should stay here.”

“yeah, I get it.” Sans shrugged. Papyrus didn’t but allowed Undyne to drag him away.

 **“You didn’t actually kill anyone, did you Sans?”** When they were alone Frisk remembered a conversation where Sans had said ‘you’d be dead where you stand’.

_“nope, didn’t have to.”_

*I didn’t meet him.

[I told you, Undyne is the one who killed me.]

~The only skeleton I ever saw was the royal scientist and that was just a poster.

(I never hurt anyone.)

-I traveled through Snowdin at night after all the guards went home.

<He didn’t kill me either, don’t worry. But can I say, wow, you’ve got a temper there, Frisk.>

*That was scary.

**“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at her like that. I know it really isn’t her fault, I just…”**

_“…it’s been a long day_.” Sans offered.


	6. Arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dialogue heavy chapter. Reminder: Bold is Frisk  
> ~Orange  
> -Dark blue  
> *Light blue  
> [Purple]  
> (Green)  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I doubt the Undertale world is the same as our world, so I borrowed funeral traditions from different religions and made up a few. No disrespect meant.

Sans and Frisk were content to sit in silence but the other souls stated talking amongst themselves.

(What do you think they’re talking about in there?)

[How not to start a war.]

-Asgore said he was going to turn himself in. He can still do that.

<How are they going to explain Frisk, then?>

*They could just lie.

Inside the throne room, Asgore had just said something similar about surrendering himself to the humans.

“Are you serious?!” Undyne continued to rage. “Who’s going to lead us with you gone?”

“I was hoping…Tori?”

“Don’t Tori me, Asogre. But yes, in this you are correct, accepting punishment for your actions would be the most just thing to do.”

“SO ALL THOSE HUMANS…THEY CAN’T BE DEAD CAN THEY? THEY’RE STILL WITH SANS. HE CAN TALK TO THEM.”

“That’s just their souls persisting after death, Pap. They’re…yeah.” under Toriel’s judgmental glare, Undyne was starting to feel guilty for her part in the situation.

“It…It’s theoretically…um…” Alphys almost said something but thought better of it.

(It’s not like he wanted to kill us, he just felt it was his only choice.)

~Excuse me if I’m not sympathetic.

-I tried talking to Undyne she didn’t listen to me.

<The whole Underground is pretty anti-human. They would have to get over that.>

*Everyone I met was nice.

[Really? Then how did you die?]

*…

“I am willing to lead the monsters into a new era of peace with humanity. Sadly after what we did there is no guarantee they will accept us, even if you take the blame.”

“Yeah! They hate us! They attacked us unprovoked last time!”

“That’s not entirely true,” Toriel muttered.

“It doesn’t matter Undyne, we won’t win against them.”

“AND UNDYNE, IT’S ALWAYS BETTER TO BE FRIENDS. THE HUMAN,” he tired to remember a name but couldn’t. “THE RED ONE, IS NICE.”

(They aren’t going to bury us are they?)

*huh?

-Uh, my religion is kinda specific about that.

[My family has a plot.]

~Hey, Sans. Go in there and talk to them.

_“what’s the point? They won’t remember this anyway.”_

**“How do you know that? Maybe we won’t have to reset ever again.”**

_“Kid, Frisk. I don’t know if you noticed but, you’re dead. You really want to stay like this?”_

**“Better me than anyone else.”**

[Your resets won’t bring us back either way.]

-Yeah, so shouldn’t we get to decide what happens to our remains?

_“If it means that much to you, why don’t one of you do it?”_

*Can we?

~I’ll try.

In their mental scape, the orange soul made a grab for Sans, he ducked away before the kid could snatch his soul.

_“getting too close for comfort there,”_

~Than how do I move?

<All I can move is my wing.>

 **“Here, I’ll do it.”** Frisk took over their shared body. They walked inside the cave and ducked into the flower carpeted throne room.

Only when the five monsters turned to look at them, did Frisk realize they had no idea what to say. “ **What did you want to tell them?”** The six humans crowded them and all spoke at once. Frisk awkwardly froze under the attention.

Sans took charge of their body again and made the other humans give Frisk some space. “Okay, guess I gotta be the adult.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at his top right wing. “you first.”

The other monsters watched as Sans pointed at the green wing. He stood in silence for a few seconds then said, “Wants their remains to be cremated and their ashes put in a river. Yellow.”

<I have a name.>

_“Don’t care.”_

**“Sans!”**

_“Does Asgore know it?”_

<I don’t really care about my body. No wait, can you send it to my family?>

“Wants to go to family. Orange.”

~I don’t care.

<Wait! No! Cremate me! Just in case Flowey gets my body.>

 _“Make up your mind, kid.”_ “orange doesn’t care, yellow wants to be cremated. Next,” he pointed to the wing on his left side. “huh, they need to be dressed in all white clothes made entirely from plant fiber, no jewelry. And buried in a wooden box with holes in the top, six feet under a tree sapling.”

At the weird looks the monsters gave him, Sans just shrugged. “no, we’re not making fun of you. Monster funerals just pretty simple.” He waved his middle right wing to get their attention. “Purple has a family plot to be buried at. … Light blue doesn’t care.” Sans dictated for the other two souls then indicated the skull floating overhead. “Red?”

**“Me? Uh…”**

Sans didn’t wait for Frisk to say anything. “Wants their body to be stabbed multiple times, their head cut off, and then cremated.”

~What?!

(Oh my god!)

[Smart.]

-Yikes.

**“I doubt they’ll be able to find my body.”**

_“but if we find it, now we have an excuse.”_

(Oh my god.) Green said again. Yellow laughed while light blue hid from Sans behind them.

“that’s all. We’ll be outside, if you need us,” Sans calmly left.

They barely stepped into the sunlight when a new voice greeted them. “Wow, one little murder and suddenly all of your friends hate you. It’s only a matter of time until the whole underground knows what you did.”

“I’m okay with that,” Sans said while the voices in his head argued over whether to fight Flowey or not.

“Bummer, I guess Chara was right. Being a pariah isn’t enough to make you give up that kind of power.”

“We’re about fifty-fifty on blasting you right now, so you’ve got five seconds to make yourself scarce. And if one monster gets dusted you and your psycho sibling are next.”

“Hmph, screw all of you,” Flowey grumbled before disappearing.

Papyrus was eventually sent outside to collect Sans. He arrived outside to find ‘Sans’ busy.

“3,2,1, jump!” The skeleton monster jumped in place. The six wings all vigorously waved up and down, Purple slightly out of rhythm with the others. “Okay, okay, don’t fight.” A voice too high pitched to be Sans kept peace as the other five wings glared at the purple one. “One more try. 3,2,1, flap!”

“NYEH, HUMANS? UH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“Hi Papyrus.” The human in charge of their shared body greeted him cheerfully. The lights in their eye sockets were red, while the blaster skull above them was dark. “We were trying to fly. Sans is asleep, I’ll wake him up.” After a couple seconds of silence, their eyes changed from red to white and light returned to the eyes of the blaster skull. Sans fidgeted a bit as his sleepy mind settled into his awake body then he noticed Papyrus.

“Hm? Oh hey, bro, how’d it go?”

“UNDYNE IS STILL UPSET BUT EVERYONE DECIDED TO KEEP IT A SECRET THAT THE BARRIER IS BROKEN, JUST FOR A FEW DAYS. DR. ALPHYS WANTS YOU TO COME TO THE LAB. A MONSTER HAS NEVER BEFORE ABSORBED HUMAN SOULS LIKE YOU HAVE SO APPARENTLY THERE IS SCIENCE TO BE DONE.”

“Sure, why not?”

“BY THE WAY, SANS, WHY DID THE HUMANS NOT USE BLUE MAGIC TO FLY?”

“heh, I wasn’t going to mention that. Now you’ve got them excited.” The wings all perked up or looked accusingly at Sans.

“NO FLYING RIGHT NOW, HUMANS. IT’S TIME TO GO HOME. OR TO THE LAB IN YOUR CASE.” Frisk chose to hover near Papyrus again. “YES, HELLO AGAIN RED HUMAN. DO YOU WANT PETS?”

“that’s frisk.”

<Oh, Frisk gets a name?>

Papyrus patted Frisk’s skull as they went inside. Undyne was no longer in attendance, she’d left to organize the guard. Asgore and Toriel continued to stand in the room, one downtrodden and the other judgmental. Alphys greeted Sans while carrying a digital notepad, scientific curiosity overriding her nerves a bit. Sans acknowledged her and tried not to flinch under Toriel’s glare.

While Sans was distracted, one of the other humans took control of his right arm long enough to raise a certain finger towards the king.

“Whoa! Not in front of the bro.” Sans quickly reigned in the errant limb.

“W-was that one of the…humans?” Dire situation or not, Alphys couldn’t help but be fascinated. Sans, Papyrus, and Alphys left the throne room.

“yeah, it’s not easy to keep them from doing whatever they want.” For example Frisk was happily playing a game where they made different noises and Papyrus ‘Nyeh’-ed back.

“Can they…or well, we saw… they can use your magic?” Alphys took notes while they walked.

“only frisk can, for now. The others might figure it out eventually, if we stay together that long.”

“Oh? Why, um. Why only them?”

Sans shrugged. "I let them use it once now they take it without asking.” Frisk turned away from Pap to frown at him. “or without meaning to. yes, kiddo, we all know that was an accident.”

 **“The others used magic when…”** Frisk started to think loudly about the fight with Flowey and Chara but Sans quickly quieted them.

They took a shortcut, a real one not teleportation, to make it through Hotland to Alphy’s lab. Undyne and the guard had already cleared a path so nobody saw them. The two story building was tall enough for Sans to stand, once he crawled through the front door. A couple of the human souls found this hilarious.

It took thirty minutes, and an excessive number of puns, to convince Papyrus to return home on his own. He promised to return first thing in the morning, Sans quickly bartered that down to early morning rather than dawn.

With him gone, Alphys felt comfortable moving to the true lab for more extensive tests. No way was he fitting in the elevator so Sans teleported downstairs to the room with the DT extractor, once Alphys cleared it of her guests. Most of the ceilings were tall enough for him to at least sit.

The humans remained quiet while Alphys took readings and scans. A few of the kids were nervous at first but Alphys didn’t suggest anything painful or invasive, just a few electrodes taped to the wings. Sans only didn’t nod off because he was interested in the results.

Amalgamates poked their heads in to see what was going on, and because it was dinner time. Alphys was flustered and embarrassed by the reveal. The human souls asked enough questions that she didn’t notice Sans was unsurprised.

Alphys bustled off to fetch dinner for her patients. Most of the amalgamates followed her. The dog pack left once Sans threw a bone for them.

[Something is bothering me.] The purple soul took advantage of the silence to speak up.

~Go ahead.

[Chara makes no sense. Do any of you know what happens to a human soul upon death?]

*Heaven.

~uhm…

(A research paper came out shortly before I fell. A human’s soul shatters and disappears. If it goes to Heaven or someplace else we don’t know. But there’s no trace left of it on Earth.

[Exactly. And monster souls do the same thing, right?]

**“Yes.”**

[Asriel and Chara died, their souls are gone. So neither Flowey or Chara have a soul. But Flowey I understand. Flowey is Asriel’s reanimated corpse.]

-Monsters don’t leave a body.

*They turn to dust.

<Dust is a monster’s body it just breaks into tiny pieces when they die.>

(Which makes even more sense for Flowey. His dust landed in the soil and the flower absorbed it and grew. That flower is what’s left of him physically.)

[Right, his corpse injected with determination. It makes sense he would have a sense of identity.]

-Would the same happen to us?

~You mean if someone got took our bodies out of Asgore’s basement?

*Would that mean there would be two of me?

<I doubt it. It would just be two halves of you.>

~I fell a while ago, my brain is probably decomposed by now.

<What are the odds of particles from his brain ending up in the flower?>

(Monsters may store memories in all their dust not just their brains.)

[It doesn’t matter. For all intents and purposes, Flowey is Asriel’s reanimated corpse.]

*A zombie.

_“Stop interrupting them, what are you trying to say, kid?”_

[I’m saying, how the heck can Chara exist without a body or a soul?]

…

~Maybe it’s not really them, just left over determination?

*Why would it want to hurt people?

<Determination isn’t evil by itself.>

(And why would pure DT have Chara’s memories?)

[Exactly! Memories exist in our brains and souls. So, how can Chara have any?]

~Yeah, no way anything is left of Chara’s body it would all be bones by now. And even if monsters store memories in those, we don’t.

-Are you sure they didn’t have a soul?

 **“Chara told me they didn’t; that’s why they wanted mine**.”

(Sans, do you have an opinion on this?)

_“…nope. You covered it.”_

~Ok, so we’re all in agreement this makes no freaking sense.

-Frisk, I hate to ask this, but are you sure you didn’t imagine Chara?

*Don’t be mean.

“ **No it’s okay. I’ve thought that before, too. But even if I did somehow bring my imaginary friend to life with magic. How did I know things that only Asriel and Chara could know?”**

-Did you really?

“ **Chara translated Frogits for me, and told me what a monster who had absorbed a human soul looks like.** ”

Alphys returned with instant noodles and dogfood. She offered to fetch something for Sans but he assured her he wasn’t hungry.


	7. Final Timeline

With the Almalgamates settled, they set up a few more tests. After seeing Frisk do it, all the kids were excited to see if they could use magic. Green summoned a frying pan easily enough. The next kid somehow shorted out the device monitoring their condition.

*Whoops.

Several of the human souls groaned or snickered as the lights flickered out.

“keep your skin on, alph, i’ll get it.” Sans volunteered because she was busy reviewing data read-outs.

“Oh-okay. Um…do you know where…”

(Can we fit?)

Sans would usually take a shortcut without thinking about it but considering his size, the way the humans were effecting his magic, and the fact Amalgamates of unknown dimensions were wandering around, he took the time to make sure the halls were clear before teleporting to the junction box. Cycling a few switches didn’t get the lights back so on the safety switch on the core transformer must have been flipped. Another shortcut took him to the vital piece of machinery.

Sans reset the safety switch and was ready to leave but Frisk stopped him.

**“Why does that have a soul on it?”**

“What?” Sans did a double take. The kid was right. He’d never thought about it before but there was a red soul painted on the metal casing. Odd choice of decoration, but not worrisome. Then again… He had a bad feeling about this. He opened the outer panels to take a look. Something was glowing in the bowls of the generator. “Oh, Doc, you didn’t…” Sans moved aside a few wires and reached inside to grab the glass jar.

*Is that a soul?

“Nope,” Sans knew what he was going to see before he pulled the tube into their line of sight. “it’s two.” Sure enough, a red and white soul floated in the glass container.

<Whose?>

~Where did that come from?

“the dead royal children. I never thought the old coot would go this far.” Sans disconnected the wires attaching the soul container to the generator. “he must have been there when they died.”

**“Chara’s and Asriel’s souls?”**

-Whoa.

(This is Flowey’s missing soul?)

[OMG! Chara does have a soul! That’s how they exist!]

<Someone stole their souls!?>

*Why?

“heh, the prefect power source. The core makes magical electricity and electricity out of geothermal energy. Mostly just electricity, the magic part is all made in this transformer, here.” Sans gave a dark chuckle. “Damn, he even labeled it. Must have thought he was hilarious.”

<Who would do that?>

~Royal scientist before Alphys. That skeleton I saw.

“yep. And congrats, you’re one of the few people who remember he existed at all.”

 **“A skeleton…”** Frisk thought but this wasn’t the time to ask about that.

*Why is it here though, and not with us at the barrier? Is power that important?

~Better question, why isn’t it with Flowey and Chara?

“The old royal scientist never got to see the DT extractor finished. He never learned that a bit of determination is all that’s required to animate something.”

-So he just figured their souls were, what, free game?

[They weren’t using it, I guess.]

(That’s hardly an excuse.)

<No argument here.>

 **“Do you think we could give it back to them?”** Frisk brought their attention back to the important question.

(Would getting their souls back make them less…)

-Less blood thirsty?

~Dust hungry.

“ **Flowey told me, the only reason he’s like this is because he can’t feel emotions anymore. If we give him his soul back…maybe…** ”

*Can we?

They all looked at Sans. “beats me. We’re in uncharted territory, remember?”

[We’ve already established Chara has some sort of link to their soul. Flowey might be the same.]

<It’s theirs, they deserve to have it back.>

~But do we really just want to hand it to them? That’s asking for trouble.

“welp, I vote running some tests and confirm what this is, before making any decisions and before the backup power runs out. Hold this for me.” He dropped the soul canister over his shoulder and the wings scrambled to catch it.

“ **Alphys is in charge repairing the Core. You don’t think she knows about this, do you**?”

(I hope not.)

“ _only one way to find out..”_ He wasn’t about to take a shortcut while carrying an unknown soul(s) so they had to crawl through obnoxiously long hallways.

“Oh! Oh Sans. I-is…um…something wrong? The, it’s just the lights are still off.”

“yeah about that.” There were many different ways to approach this, Sans went for the easiest. He set the canister in front of Alphys.

“OH MY GOD! W-where. W-what?” Her stuttering became incomprehensible.

(Is she having a panic attack?)

~Oh shit, do something.

“Whoa Alph, do you know what this is?” Sans moved the canister away from her, which seemed to calm her down a bit.

“It-it-uh it’s…”

“Yeah, you haven’t seen this before have you?” Alphys shook her head. “ _kay, that answers that_.” “we found this. Wanna guess where?”

“F-found? So that’s not…” She glanced at Frisk, confirming it wasn’t their soul. “You went to-to…” she started hyperventilating when she put two and two together.

“whoa, Alph, head between your knees.” A couple of the wings patted her on the back.

“Oh m-my god-d h-has, has-have they-that b-b-been here the whole time!”

“yeah…looks like it.” They sat in silence for a minute as Alphys got her breathing back under control.

“W-who? Do-do you think?”

“I was hoping you could do some scans.”

“Oh! R-right of course.” Alphys seemed happy to have something to do. She fumbled for the devices that had been on Sans a few minutes ago. “Al-alright we should have.”

Ping! Chariel Dreemur LV:? At:? Df:? the device dutifully provided stats.

What did one say in this sort of situation? Two monsters and seven humans had no idea so they all sat in silence.

“are they stable?” Sans recovered first.

“Oh um…” Alphys was momentarily stunned out of nervousness. She slowly and methodically attached the canister to several machines. “Y-yes.”

“welp, you monitor them. I-we, will go tell the king and queen.”

“Now?”

“do you want to wait?”

“…no.”

Sans walked a little ways away from Alphys before teleporting to the hall outside the royal living quarters. The souls took the chance to speak up.

(oh my god.)

~Well damn.

*bad word.

-In this situation…

**“Thank you for being the adult, Sans.”**

<Cheer up, guys, this could solve everything.>

“knock, knock.” The door likely wasn’t locked but he chose to be polite. After a minute Asgore cracked the door open.

“Sans, now isn’t the best time.”

“it’s kinda urgent.”

Asgore considered that for a minute then let him inside. The house was sized for boss monsters so Sans fit relatively easily. “You should know, we have…company.”

“company?”

Asgore led them inside. At the kitchen table, sat Toriel, a potted plant, and a human child. Sans made a strange choking sound and nothing else.

The yellow, green, and orange souls flared their power defensively and snatched control of their shared body. “~<(What are you doing here!)>” They shouted.

The two soulless kids seemed amused by their reaction. “We came home to see our folks, what are you doing, Trash?” Flowey smirked.

“Don’t be so mean Azzy, we owe him a thank you. Afterall, if he hadn’t killed a child my age and left their body lying on my grave I wouldn’t have been able to come back.” Chara said with false sweetness.

Sans mentally nudged the human kids out of the way so he could talk. “hey, ‘Chara’ settle an argument for us. Say something only the real Chara Dreemur would know.”

“Azzy drew himself as the lord of hyperdeath, Mom put it on the fridge, and Dad thought it was a picture of a butterfly.” The child said smugly.

“Hey!” Flowey complained and then added with a mutter, “Ultimate Lord of Hyperdeath.”

-Okay, I’m convinced.

[I knew it!]

*Oh man.

“heh,”

“Something funny, Trash?”

“nope.” “ _except that they think they are so clever by hiding behind their folks and now it’s about to backfire spectacularly_.” “be right back.”

Sans ducked out of the Dreemur’s house. Nobody knew what to say. In a less than a minute he returned. Only this time it wasn’t Sans. His eyes were glowing purple and he wrung his hands together in a way Sans never did.

“Hi, I wanted to ask. Chara, do you know how you exist?”

“Excuse me?” Chara took offense.

“We were talking about it.” Purple made a hand gesture as if they wanted to twirl a pen. “And humans don’t store memories in their bones. So even if Asriel’s memories were transferred from his dust to a flower, that doesn’t explain how you can have any sense of identity with a fully decomposed brain and…”

The green wing twitched and suddenly the purple eye-lights changed to green as if the green soul had shoved purple out of the way. “Sorry about them, that was insensitive. We just wanted to know, have you ever thought about where your soul went?”

“No! I want them to realize it makes no sense.” The purple soul shoved the green soul in return. The rest of the wings started flapping as the other children got involved. In their shared headspace the dead children argued about what they wanted to say. Sans and Firsk didn’t see the point in interfering.

“Children, children, please,” Toriel tried to calm them down. “What are you trying to say?”

After several seconds of silence, long enough for a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors, the yellow soul took charge. “Chara, how do you think you have memories?”

“I never thought about it,” Chara said nastily.

“Okay, but that is definitely not your body and brain, right? It’s Frisk’s. So where are your memories coming from? Not to be mean, but that’s what we would like yall to consider for a moment.”

At the awkward silence, Sans shared a thought, _“we could have done this the easy way._ ”

~We’re making a point.

(Ease them into it.)

“ **If they can remember they have a soul maybe they won’t be so evil**.”

*I want to see if it goes, shwoosh, back into their body if they remember.

“Mom, they’re upsetting me. Make them shut up,” Chara demanded.

Alphys arrived. Chara screeched and launched themselves at her. Flowey leapt from his pot in such a hurry that it shattered on the floor. Only yellow putting a hand out stopped them from tacking Alphys.

“Give that back! Give it back! That’s mine!”

Alphys pried the lid off the soul container as quickly as she could with shaking claws.

Chara clutched their soul to their chest. They and Asriel curled into a ball on the floor, crying their eyes out.

Sans quickly excused himself, and the humans, before this could get any more awkward.

…

Watching Chara and Asriel return from the dead, mostly in on piece, made the other humans eager to give it a try.

Draining DT from Chara’s and Frisk’s souls was easy enough. An afternoon playing with Asriel restored Chara’s determination. Orange insisted on being the first soul to try, ‘getting our remains out of Asgore’s basement’. Asgore had stored the bodies in stone coffins so his remains were largely mummified. Alphys injected his corpse with liquid DT but his soul didn’t feel capable of making the jump from Sans’ body. They solved that problem by draining a little bit of his own DT and other traits with the DT Extractor, and injecting that into his corpse. Once that was done his soul easily absorbed into his dead body. While Orange was happy to help prevent a war between humans and monsters he also wasn’t particularly thrilled with his new accommodations. “Being a mummy kinda sucks. I’ve been dead for a while, anyway. Maybe I’ll just check if any of my family are still alive and then leave.”

Purple happily inhabited one of Alphys’ robot prototypes. “Whatever is left of my brain, put that in a specimen jar, put that on top of my soul canister, put those in a robot body and shoot me up with DT solution. 99% says it works.” Robot 99 read every book in the underground while waiting for the other souls to get settled.

Yellow’s custom body took over a week for Alphys to assemble. A body that they asked to be, rather morbidly assembled like a mech suit around their partially decomposed body.

Green scrunched up their nose at Purple and Yellow and instead asked for their cremated remains and urn to be included with their soul inside a robot body, thank you.

While waiting for Alphys to finish the others’ robot bodies, Blue chose something else. Blue insisted a pine tree sapling be brought inside and planted in a large pot containing their dead body. Their soul was then put in the tree. “I’m not leaving my pot until I eat all my remains, I don’t want two of me running around.”

Upon seeing someone successfully transfer to a plant body, Light blue selected an echo flower. “I want to be pretty and burrow like Flowey.”

Chara offered to try to return Frisk’s body but instead they asked for a trade. “I don’t want to go back to my old family. They weren’t very nice.”

Sans dozed off in the DT extractor, for what was hopefully the last time. He woke up in a bed staring at a white ceiling. For a second he felt certain that he was back at the beginning again. Another reset. He waited for Papyrus to yell at him but instead The sound of bones made him look over to where Papyrus was teaching a tiny skeleton how to bounce up and down. The small skeleton wore a familiar purple sweater.

“frisk?”

They both immediately turned to fuss over him. “BROTHER! YOU’RE AWAKE!”

“How are you feeling, Sans?"

He closed his eyes to enjoy the silence in his head. “… it’s so…beautifully quiet.”

“He hee, sorry.” Frisk’s (or Chara’s technically) skeleton was all human rather than monster. Detached jawbone, a dozen tiny finger bones, floating ribs, extra. Still they were holding together well enough and had red glowing eyes. “I’m feel fine,” Frisk noticed his assessing look.

“Cute font, kiddo. Should we call you ‘frisky’ now?”

“I’m still Frisk.”

“THAT’S EXCELLENT NAME! SANS! FRISK IS OUR LITTLE SIBLING NOW!”

“yeah, figured. They adopted me two timelines ago.”

Frisk happily rattled their bones at him.


End file.
